Tennessee grocers are counting down the days until they can sell their customers wine on Sundays.

Jan. 6 will be the first Sunday shoppers can buy wine along with the rest of their grocery haul — and grocery stores across the state are eagerly anticipating the extra day of wine sales every week.

“We look forward to being able to provide our customers the convenience of being able to purchase wine on Sundays come January 6th,” said Melissa Eads, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Nashville Division. “Sunday has become the biggest shopping day of the week in most cases, so we know this change will be well received.”

Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law the bill allowing Sunday wine and liquor sales in April, but liquor stores were given a head start to immediately open seven days a week. Meanwhile, retail food stores must wait until January to sell wine on Sundays.

The law aligns hours of wine sales with beer sales. That means liquor stores can sell alcoholic beverages between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m. on Sundays, unless otherwise defined by the jurisdiction. Come Jan. 6, grocery stores can sell wine during those same hours on Sundays.

Under the law, Tennesseans can now buy beer, wine and spirits on Labor Day, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. Alcohol sales are not permitted on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

The law eases frustration for grocers in Tennessee, who said customers are often confused by the state’s liquor laws. Most other states allow seven-day sales of liquor and wine.

“We’ve had to turn away a lot of frustrated customers who add wine to their cart along with every other item they buy on Sunday,” said Rob Ikard, president of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association. “Sunday is one of the biggest shopping days of the week and we’re just really pleased we’re going to be able to serve our customers with every item in the store.”

Ikard said grocery stores in the state will likely have to increase their wine orders to account for the extra day of sales. He expects the sales boost to come from people who already do their regular grocery shopping on Sunday.

Sunday wine sales was one of several significant changes to Tennessee’s liquor laws in recent years.

Grocers and convenience stores were prohibited from selling wine at all until 2016, when the wine in grocery stores law took effect after many years of debate amongst lawmakers, grocers, the liquor lobby and alcohol critics. The law, which passed in 2014, allowed liquor retailers to begin selling beer, food products, party supplies, cigarettes and other items they weren’t permitted to sell previously.

Then, in 2017, a law redefining beer opened the door for Tennessee brewers to make high alcohol content beers. It also allowed grocery and convenience stores to sell those beers, which were previously only available at liquor stores and restaurants/bars with a liquor license.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.

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